By now I’m sure you’ve heard the story of Royal Galipeau (David Akin was there), the Conservative MP that yesterday crossed the floor of the House of Commons, climbed-up into the Liberal opposition benches to confront Liberal MP David McGuinty, verbally assaulting him, “making threats” and even “grabbed his left shoulder” in an unprecedented breach of Parliamentary decorum, not to mention decency and common sense.
At least Galipeau has come to his senses and later offered an apology to McGuinty. Most people will agree that Galipeau was out of line and an apology was very much in order, because you’d think we could agree grabbing opponents on the floor of the HoC and yelling at them isn’t exactly parliamentary. But that everyone doesn’t include our Blogging Tory and other conservative blogging friends.
I wonder if they’ll call Royal a pussy for apologizing to David. After all, they don’t think he did anything wrong. Here’s a sampling from the nutfarm:
Joan Tintor says Good for Galipeau: “No doubt McGuinty the Lesser will stage an impromptu news conference, sporting the usual expression of pained piety he wears like a neck brace on a phoney car accident plaintiff.”
The Hammer of Thor says Cry, Cry, Cry, Cry..: “Now the panty waisted David McGuinty is whining and sniveling because he was poked in the shoulder in the "Ugly Brawl" by Royal Galipeau. This is getting to the point that even I am feeling embarrassed for the lib's. C'mon guys - BE A MAN!”
Halls of Macadamia says David McGuinty pees himself…: “Royal Galipeau, 60 years old, is one scary-ass parliamentarian. Run, McGuinty! Run!”
NB Tory Lady says We are on to you Liberals!!: “I find it very unparliamentary of David McGuinty to cry fowl when he so blatently threw a remark at Royal Galipeau during his question period time. It is clear Mr. Galipeau is a model of decorum 99 percent of his parliamentary time and that he was defending his honour and he admits, he acted in anger and utter shock.”
Unhyphenated Canadian writes WWF comes to Ottawa: “Royal Galipeau, 60 years old, is one scary-ass parliamentarian. Run, McGuinty! Run!”
(BCer says: I assume they meant WWE, because after a trademark fight the WWF now refers solely to the World Wildlife Fund, unless that’s what they actually meant…)
The Nexus of Assholery says David McGuinty living in fear of political opponent: “David McGuinty may well be a pussy…Apparently, David McGuinty is just a pussy.”
Dust my Broom says You call this a brawl?: "Give me a friggin’ break…Apparently he grabbed his shoulder. Did the media even look at who they were?... What a loser.”
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Dipping into the cesspool
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11 comments:
Of course the tories are minimizing this. If the shoe was on the other foot, they'd be screaming assault and bloody murder. Hypocrites on parade.
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"catnip said... Of course the tories are minimizing this."
ah jeff... you can tell a lot about a person by the company he keeps.
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And as usual.. a Blogging Tory completely avoids the issue at hand and tried to distract or obfuscate or change the issue.
You misspelled "the company she keeps". And, of course, mr macadamia is such a stellar judge of...well...everything, isn't he?
Whooee! I wonder what they wanted Ginty to do. Start shovin'? Throw some punches? If only Ginty hadn't wimped out an' pushed back, we woulda had the kindergarten antics of our parliament laughed at on the TV news of the world.
JB
Seriously though everyone, what's the big deal?
I'm no CPC partisan, but I could give a shit less about this type of thing. It's convenient for the Liberals who like to frame the rageaholic Tories as neanderthalic brutes who are naturally inclined to violence (like finger wagging!). If this is a breach of parliamentary decorum (imagine! in such a sacred institution, no less!), ok, fine, let Miliken waste everyones time to deal with it.
But to draw attention to the occurence like it's a big deal (or indicative of anything) is ridiculous. To feel somehow insulted by it is even worse. It's like when the Tories feigned insult at the May Chaimberlain quote. Again, it's just people trying to gain partisan advantage by appearing slighted when they're really not.
As I've said before (perhaps here), I love it when parliamentarians actually show some genuine passion. Sure, if every insult sanctioned by parliamentary rules was met with a (sort of weird) shoulder grabbing and finger wagging, it would get a bit out of control. But to suggest that it is an "issue at hand", as in something worthy of discussion beyond "haha, did you see that dude freak out?", is kind of pathetic, I think.
If someone can explain to me how this is worthy of discussion, please do.
You know, I must say I'm rather surprised Olaf, as I've always thought of you as one of the more (relatively) sensible Conservatives. I'm not sure where to start on answering your question as it seems so cut and dry to me, but I'll leave it at this: passionate debate is one thing, grabbing someone and yelling in their face is another. If it's not accepted in the schoolyard, why should it be accepted in the floor of the House of freakin Commons? Forget holding politicians to a higher standard, I'm not naive. But howabout a standard?
You know, I must say I'm rather surprised Olaf, as I've always thought of you as one of the more (relatively) sensible Conservatives. I'm not sure where to start on answering your question as it seems so cut and dry to me, but I'll leave it at this: passionate debate is one thing, grabbing someone and yelling in their face is another. If it's not accepted in the schoolyard, why should it be accepted in the floor of the House of freakin Commons? Forget holding politicians to a higher standard, I'm not naive. But howabout a standard?
Jeff,
Firstly, I can't tell you how often I get the "I'm surprised at your reaction Olaf, I thought you were one of the reasonable conservatives" line, which is more or less saying "if you don't agree with me, you're not being reasonable". As if sometimes I'm a reasonable person (eg. when I agree with the Liberals or criticize the Tories), and other times, I'm not (when I don't follow the above pattern). It's annoying.
That said, I understand that what the MP did was inappropriate and unparliamentary, but I don't see why this is an "issue". If everytime an MP acted inappropriately or unparliamentary in Parliament, we considered it an "issue", we'd have no time for anything else.
I agree it was inappropriate, but my slightly muted outrage is the result of not caring about little shit like this in general. I'm completely indifferent to petty disputes over parliamentary decorum, especially where no genuine offence is felt and it is exploited for partisan purposes, and even more especially when nothing gets accomplished in question period anyways, which I consider to be an infinitely more egregious sin.
It has already turned into a clown college of sorts, so if someone wants to up the ante with finger wagging and shoulder grabbing, they have my blessing.
Well, that's what you get when you don't tow the party line every time Olaf. But I feel your pain, I often get a similar complaint from my friends on the left, that I'm usually so sensible...except when I say something negative about the NDP, coincidentally.
Anyway, I just felt that this was one of those cases that crossed partisan lines. You disagree, that's fine. Reasonably disagree away.I'm still going to say grabbing people by the shoulder and yelling in their face is wrong.
Galipeau crossed a line. Fair enough. Where's your condemnation of David McGuinty questioning Galipeau's record of defending Francophone rights -- mostly just because Galipeau switched sides?
Also, McGuinty is more than ten years younger than Galipeau, and bigger than him. So to pretend that he was "intimidated" by Galipeau is more than a bit of a stretch.
But thanks for reading, Jeff.
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